After several years of finding that fewer and fewer Americans believed in man-made climate change, pollsters are now finding that belief is on the uptick.

The newest study from the National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change, which is a biannual survey taken since fall 2008 and organized by the Brookings Institute, shows that 62% of Americans now believe that man-made climate change is occurring, and 26% do not. The others are unsure.

That is a significant rise in believers since a low in spring 2010, when only about 50% of Americans said they believed in global warming, but still down from when the survey first began, when it was at around 75%. The pollsters talked to 887 people across the country.

What’s caused the sudden rise? Mostly the weather.

“People, for good or for bad, are making connections in what they see in terms of weather and what they believe in terms of climate change,” said Christopher Borick, co-author of the survey. He is an associate professor of Political Science and director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion in Pennsylvania. His co-author is Barry Rabe, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and a professor at the University of Michigan.

4 comments:

It's been (in general) warming since the bottom of the Little Ice Age, about 1680 BC. There's been some cooling in the interim, the most recent being from the 1940s to the 1970s. However, for the past 15 years there's been no statistically significant warming (i.e. the planet's temperature has basically been flat). The only possible link between the temperature increase and mankind has been our industrial activity which apparently contributes co2 to the atmosphere. So far, despite even illegitimate efforts by the UN and its useful idiots there is no evidence connecting co2 to the planet's warming.

It was warmer during the Medieval Warming Period (about 1000 years ago) and co2 was apparently at the same level, 280ppmv as it was 1000 years later until our industrial revolution.

How could anyone conclude anything from that survey? It's as bogus as the earlier one trying to demonstrate that 97% of scientists believe man's activities cause most warming.

Anon - you cannot have a reasonable discussion of the contrary and conflicting data with warmists because they are in denial that skeptics have anything useful to bring to the subject. In such an environment, you can only bite your tongue, shake your head, and move along. It may take another 10 years but, eventually, the data will bring the truth to light.